WHO BELONGS AND WHO DOESN’T: GENTRIFICATION AND THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Date
2021
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In recent National Basketball Association history there has been no team more dominant the Golden State Warriors. They won three championships in five years, during an incredible stretch from 2014 to 2019. Their style of play, free-flowing and three-point heavy, would change the league, but during that same time the look of the Warriors fandom was also changing. For those years, as was the case for the past few decades, the Warriors played at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. In 2019 they moved across the San Francisco Bay to Chase Center, 11 miles from their previous home. It is this move that I argue is a broader shift in the Warriors team and fan identity. Can a fandom be gentrified? What is the relationship between gentrification in Oakland and the changing identity of the Golden State Warriors and their fans? How is place’s identity tied to a team’s identity and the identity of its fans? What role does communications play in this changing identity? These are the questions I look to answer as I explore what it means to be a fan, the history of Oakland, gentrification, and the rise and fall of the Warriors. Through a historical and textual analysis, I find that the feelings of “belonging and disbelonging,” as coined by Werth and Marienthal (2016), produced by gentrification can similarly be found in narratives around the Warriors and their fandom.
Description
79 pages
Keywords
Gentrification, Sports, Golden State Warriors, Basketball, Oakland